Four Websites Features Landscape Design Firms Should Use

Blog Articles, Call To Actions, Landing Pages and Email Marketing For Landscape Design Websites

Your landscape design firm's website is the center of your online marketing efforts. Attracting visitors to your site is the key to generating leads. Using channels like social media, PPC advertising, email, blogging, Search engine optimization and other digital channels to drive traffic and then engaging with those visitors can lead to increased sales. The key to conversion is to provide your visitors with the relevant information they need to make their buying decision.

Four website features you can employ that work together to take visitors from the attraction phase through conversion are blogging, landing pages, calls to action, and email follow-up.

How Does Inbound Marketing Work?

Inbound marketing uses digital channels to attract prospects seeking landscape design services to your site. Today's consumers are savvy and are not interested in a hard sell.  They are seeking information and their search begins online. Inbound marketing is all about providing relevant information (content) to potential clients and then using various digital channels to attract them to your website.

Content Creation

The process begins with on-page content creation like blog writing, project pages, and process pages. Make certain you follow search engine optimization best practices like using a semantic format with Title Tags, H2 and H3 headings, and internal and external links. Your website's content should be written to address the specific needs of your target market. Then promoting that content through various social media channels to drive traffic. Squarespace websites allow you to automatically push blog articles to all of your social media pages when you publish the article. You can also use apps like MissingLettr to re-share your blog articles over the upcoming year easily. Resharing ensures your article is seen when people are most interested in the topic you are writing about. 

Lifecycle Marketing

Lifecycle marketing is the process of nurturing and guiding prospects through the buying process. Top of funnel prospects are usually researching services. Middle of the funnel clients are determining scope and cost. Bottom of the funnel prospects are determining if your firm is the one they should hire. Once they convert, you continue to provide personalized information to help guide them through their buying process.

Personalize Your Marketing Outreach

Once you've learned more about your prospect through analytics, you can personalize and target your information. This can help to build trust as they progress through their process and keep your landscape design firm “top of mind” when they are ready to complete their purchase.

Integration of all Your Marketing Efforts

Creating and publishing content then using analytics to determine its reach and effectiveness work together to help you refine your approach. This allows you to provide the right information at the right time, via the right channels.

Inbound marketing is an integrated, multi-channel approach that attracts visitors by targeting and engaging with them where they search for information. Adding pages to your website increases the odds your site is found in search engine results pages. A call to action that has a sign-up form allows you to capture contact information and view the pages they view and the actions prospects take on your website. Your website's analytics allow you to track the services they are interested in. Staying top-of-mind through email and social media gives them the opportunity to engage with your business via the channels they choose.

Four Features Your Website Needs

All of your digital marketing efforts should direct visitors back to your website. Let's look at four features that when effectively used, can keep those visitors on your site and engaged, prompt them to convert and help you to close more sales.

1. Write Blog Articles Weekly at a Minimum

Your website is the hub of your inbound marketing efforts your blog is its heart. Blogging is one of the highest value methods for driving traffic. Search engines love keyword rich content when ranking websites. 

Your blog is the way to personalize your business and tell readers your story. It's the primary way to engage with potential customers, establish your expertise and educate readers as you assist them through their buying process. To be effective, set up a publishing schedule, develop a list of topics and post regularly. Keep your topics focused on your business and industry and use keywords and phrases that people would typically use to search for a business like yours online.

2. Include Calls To Action

A call to action is literally a graphic, link, or button that prompts a reader to take a specific action. When clicked a CTA takes your reader to a landing age containing a free premium offer in return for their email address. For example, your reader is planning to create a hardscape outdoor entertainment area. They see your call to action to “click here” for a free report on “Outdoor Entertainment Ideas” and click it. They're then taken to a landing age where they can download your report in return for supplying their contact info.

3. Call To Actions Should Link To Landing Pages

A landing page is where conversion happens. It's a single,topic specific page on your website. It includes information about a free premium item like an ebook, report, white paper, or discount coupon that will drive them to give you their email address. Once they've provided their information, they have “converted” from being a visitor to becoming a lead which you then nurture through your sales process.

4. Drip Email Marketing

Once converted from a visitor to a contact, you'll need to nurture your prospect and maintain contact through drip email marketing. Most visitors to your website who have come in through a search engine will be seeking information on your landscaping services. Searching for information does not mean they are ready to become a client immediately. It could take months. This is where email marketing comes in. Analytics can tell you what prompted their conversion and the other pages your visitor read. You can use this information to personalize your email outreach to address their needs and direct them to additional relevant content. This can help to build trust and keep your business top of mind as they proceed through their buying process. If as an example a visitor came to your website on a page dedicated to patio design, you can send them emails that answer questions your prospects have on hardscaping.

Nurturing prospects throughout the buying process is how you gain loyal customers and close sales. Blogging, landing pages, calls to action, and email marketing all work together to inform, convert and assist your readers thru the process. Including these four features on your website can turn it into a lead generating machine!

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About Michael Conway

I'm the owner and strategist at Means-of-Production. My firm builds Squarespace websites, Houzz profiles, and content marketing and advertising solutions for architects, interior designers, design-build contractors and landscape design firms. Our all-in-one marketing tactics attract the right clients with exceptional architectural photography and brand messaging that sets you apart from the competition.